The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

  From his Creator, and the more to increase

  Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat

  Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv’n up

  Both his beloved man and all his world,

  490 To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,

  Without our hazard, labour, or alarm,

  To range in, and to dwell, and over man

  To rule, as over all he should have ruled.

  True is, me also he hath judged, or rather

  495 Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape

  Man I deceived: that which to me belongs,

  Is enmity, which he will put between

  Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;

  His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:

  500 A world who would not purchase with a bruise,

  Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th’ account

  Of my performance: what remains, ye gods,

  But up and enter now into full bliss.

  So having said, a while he stood, expecting

  505 Their universal shout and high applause

  To fill his ear, when contrary he hears

  On all sides, from innumerable tongues

  A dismal universal hiss, the sound

  Of public scorn; he wondered, but not long

  510 Had leisure, wond’ring at himself now more;

  His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,

  His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining

  Each other, till supplanted down he fell

  A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,

  515 Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power

  Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,

  According to his doom: he would have spoke,

  But hiss for hiss returned with forkèd tongue

  To forkèd tongue, for now were all transformed

  520 Alike, to serpents all as áccessóries

  To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

  Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now

  With complicated monsters, head and tail,

  Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire,

  525 Cerastes horned, hydrus, and ellops drear,

  And dipsas (not so thick swarmed once the soil

  Bedropped with blood of Gorgon, or the isle

  Ophiusa); but still greatest he the midst,

  Now dragon grown, larger than whom the sun

  530 Engendered in the Pythian vale on slime,

  Huge Python, and his power no less he seemed

  Above the rest still to retain; they all

  Him followed issuing forth to th’ open field,

  Where all yet left of that revolted rout

  535 Heav’n-fall’n, in station stood or just array,

  Sublime with expectation when to see

  In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief;

  They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd

  Of ugly serpents; horror on them fell,

  540 And horrid sympathy; for what they saw,

  They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,

  Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast,

  And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form

  Catched by contagion, like in punishment,

  545 As in their crime. Thus was th’ applause they meant,

  Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame

  Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood

  A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,

  His will who reigns above, to aggravate

  550 Their penance, laden with fair fruit like that

  Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve

  Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange

  Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining

  For one forbidden tree a multitude

  555 Now ris’n, to work them further woe or shame;

  Yet parched with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,

  Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,

  But on they rolled in heaps, and up the trees

  Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks

  560 That curled Megaera: greedily they plucked

  The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew

  Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;

  This more delusive, not the touch, but taste

  Deceived; they fondly thinking to allay

  565 Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit

  Chewed bitter ashes, which th’ offended taste

  With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,

  Hunger and thirst constraining, drugged as oft,

  With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws

  570 With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell

  Into the same illusion, not as man

  Whom they triúmphed once lapsed. Thus were they plagued

  And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,

  Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed,

  575 Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo

  This annual humbling certain numbered days,

  To dash their pride, and joy for man seduced.

  However some tradition they dispersed

  Among the heathen of their purchase got,

  580 And fabled how the serpent, whom they called

  Ophion with Eurynome, the wide–

  Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule

  Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv’n

  And Ops, ere yet Dictaean Jove was born.

  585 Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair

  Too soon arrived, Sin there in power before,

  Once actual, now in body, and to dwell

  Habitual habitant; behind her Death

  Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet

  590 On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.

  Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death,

  What think’st thou of our empire now, though earned

  With travail difficult, not better far

  Than still at Hell’s dark threshold to have sat watch,

  595 Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half-starved?

  Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon.

  To me, who with eternal famine pine,

  Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven,

  There best, where most with ravin I may meet;

  600 Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems

  To stuff this maw, this vast unhidebound corpse.

  To whom th’ incestuous mother thus replied.

  Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flow’rs

  Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl,

  605 No homely morsels, and whatever thing

  The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspared,

  Till I in man residing through the race,

  His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect,

  And season him thy last and sweetest prey.

  610 This said, they both betook them several ways,

  Both to destroy, or unimmortal make

  All kinds, and for destruction to mature

  Sooner or later; which th’ Almighty seeing,

  From his transcendent seat the saints among,

  615 To those bright orders uttered thus his voice.

  See with what heat these dogs of Hell advance

  To waste and havoc yonder world, which I

  So fair and good created, and had still

  Kept in that state, had not the folly of man

  620 Let in these wasteful Furies, who impute

  Folly to me, so doth the Prince of Hell

  And his adherents, that with so much ease

  I suffer them to enter and possess

  A place so Heav’nly, and conniving seem

  625 To gratify my scornful enemies,

  That laugh, as if transported with some fit

  Of passi
on, I to them had quitted all,

  At random yielded up to their misrule;

  And know not that I called and drew them thither

  630 My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth

  Which man’s polluting sin with taint hath shed

  On what was pure, till crammed and gorged, nigh burst

  With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling

  Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son,

  635 Both Sin, and Death, and yawning grave at last

  Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell

  For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.

  Then heav’n and earth renewed shall be made pure

  To sanctity that shall receive no stain:

  640 Till then the curse pronounced on both precedes.

  He ended, and the Heav’nly audience loud

  Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas,

  Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways,

  Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;

  645 Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,

  Destined restorer of mankind, by whom

  New heav’n and earth shall to the ages rise,

  Or down from Heav’n descend. Such was their song,

  While the Creator calling forth by name

  650 His mighty angels gave them several charge,

  As sorted best with present things. The sun

  Had first his precept so to move, so shine,

  As might affect the earth with cold and heat

  Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call

  655 Decrepit winter, from the south to bring

  Solstitial summer’s heat. To the blank moon

  Her office they prescribed, to th’ other five

  Their planetary motions and aspécts

  In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite,

  660 Of noxious efficacy, and when to join

  In synod unbenign, and taught the fixed

  Their influence malignant when to show’r,

  Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,

  Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they set

  665 Their corners, when with bluster to confound

  Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll

  With terror through the dark aërial hall.

  Some say he bid his angels turn askance

  The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more

  670 From the sun’s axle; they with labour pushed

  Oblique the centric globe: some say the sun

  Was bid turn reins from th’ equinoctial road

  Like distant breadth to Taurus with the sev’n

  Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins

  675 Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain

  By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales,

  As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change

  Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring

  Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flow’rs,

  680 Equal in days and nights, except to those

  Beyond the polar circles; to them day

  Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun

  To recompense his distance, in their sight

  Had rounded still th’ horizon, and not known

  685 Or east or west, which had forbid the snow

  From cold Estoliland, and south as far

  Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit

  The sun, as from Thyéstean banquet, turned

  His course intended; else how had the world

  690 Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,

  Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?

  These changes in the heav’ns, though slow, produced

  Like change on sea and land, sideral blast,

  Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,

  695 Corrupt and pestilent: now from the north

  Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore

  Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice

  And snow and hail and stormy gust and flaw,

  Boreas and Caecias and Argestes loud

  700 And Thrascias rend the woods and seas upturn;

  With adverse blast upturns them from the south

  Notus and Afer black with thund’rous clouds

  From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce

  Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds

  705 Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,

  Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began

  Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,

  Daughter of Sin, among th’ irrational

  Death introduced through fierce antipathy:

  710 Beast now with beast gan war, and fowl with fowl,

  And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,

  Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe

  Of man, but fled him, or with count’nance grim

  Glared on him passing: these were from without

  715 The growing miseries, which Adam saw

  Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,

  To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within,

  And in a troubled sea of passion tossed,

  Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.

  720 O miserable of happy! is this the end

  Of this new glorious world, and me so late

  The glory of that glory? who now, become

  Accursed of blessèd, hide me from the face

  Of God, whom to behold was then my heighth

  725 Of happiness: yet well, if here would end

  The misery; I deserved it, and would bear

  My own deservings; but this will not serve;

  All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,

  Is propagated curse. O voice once heard

  730 Delightfully, Increase and multiply,

  Now death to hear! for what can I increase

  Or multiply, but curses on my head?

  Who of all ages to succeed, but feeling

  The evil on him brought by me, will curse

  735 My head, Ill fare our ancestor impure,

  For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks

  Shall be the execration; so besides

  Mine own that bide upon me, all from me

  Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,

  740 On me as on their natural centre light

  Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys

  Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!

  Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

  To mould me man, did I solicit thee

  745 From darkness to promote me, or here place

  In this delicious garden? as my will

  Concurred not to my being, it were but right

  And equal to reduce me to my dust,

  Desirous to resign, and render back

  750 All I received, unable to perform

  Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold

  The good I sought not. To the loss of that,

  Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added

  The sense of endless woes? inexplicable

  755 Thy justice seems; yet to say truth, too late,

  I thus contest; then should have been refused

  Those terms whatever, when they were proposed:

  Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good,

  Then cavil the conditions? and though God

  760 Made thee without thy leave, what if thy son

  Prove disobedient, and reproved, retort,

  Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not:

  Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee

  That proud excuse? yet him not thy election,

  765 But natural necessity begot.

  God made thee of choice his own, and of his own

  To serve him; thy reward was of his grace;

  Thy punishment then justly is at his will.

  Be it so, for I submit, his doom is fair,

  770 That dust
I am, and shall to dust return:

  O welcome hour whenever! why delays

  His hand to execute what his decree

  Fixed on this day? why do I overlive,

  Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out

  775 To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet

  Mortality my sentence, and be earth

  Insensible, how glad would lay me down

  As in my mother’s lap! there I should rest

  And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more

  780 Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worse

  To me and to my offspring would torment me

  With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt

  Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die,

  Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man

  785 Which God inspired, cannot together perish

  With this corporeal clod; then in the grave,

  Or in some other dismal place, who knows

  But I shall die a living death? O thought

  Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath

  790 Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life

  And sin? the body properly hath neither.

  All of me then shall die: let this appease

  The doubt, since human reach no further knows.

  For though the Lord of all be infinite,

  795 Is his wrath also? be it, man is not so,

  But mortal doomed. How can he exercise

  Wrath without end on man whom death must end?

  Can he make deathless death? that were to make

  Strange contradiction, which to God himself

  800 Impossible is held, as argument

  Of weakness, not of power. Will he draw out,

  For anger’s sake, finite to infinite

  In punished man, to satisfy his rigour

  Satisfied never? that were to extend

  805 His sentence beyond dust and Nature’s law,

  By which all causes else according still

  To the reception of their matter act,

  Not to th’ extent of their own sphere. But say

  That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,

  810 Bereaving sense, but endless misery

  From this day onward, which I feel begun

  Both in me, and without me, and so last

  To perpetuity; ay me, that fear

  Comes thund’ring back with dreadful revolution

  815 On my defenceless head; both Death and I

  Am found eternal, and incorporate both,

  Nor I on my part single; in me all

  Posterity stands cursed. Fair patrimony

  That I must leave ye, sons; O were I able

  820 To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!

  So disinherited how would ye bless

  Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind

  For one man’s fault thus guiltless be condemned,

  If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,